When you install SharePoint Foundation 2010 on a single server farm, you can configure SharePoint Foundation 2010 to meet your specific needs. After Setup and the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard have been completed, you will have installed binaries, configured security permissions, registry settings, the configuration database, and the content database, and installed the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. Next, you can choose to run the Farm Configuration Wizard to configure the farm, select the services that you want to use in the farm, and create the first site collection, or you can manually perform the farm configuration at your own pace.

A single server farm typically consists of one server that runs both Microsoft SQL Server and SharePoint Foundation 2010. You can deploy SharePoint Foundation 2010 in a single server farm environment if you are hosting only a few sites for a limited number of users. This configuration is also useful if you want to configure a farm to meet your needs first, and then add servers to the farm at a later stage.

Ensure that you perform a clean installation of SharePoint Foundation 2010. You cannot install the RTM version of SharePoint Foundation 2010 without first removing the beta version of SharePoint Foundation 2010.

On the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms page, review the terms, select the I accept the terms of this agreement check box, and then click Continue.

On the Choose the installation you want page, click Server farm.

On the Server Type tab, click Complete.

Optional: To install SharePoint Foundation 2010 at a custom location, click the Data Location tab, and then either type the location or click Browse to find the location.

Click Install Now.

When Setup finishes, click Close.

Note

If Setup fails, check the TEMP folder of the user who ran Setup. Ensure that you are logged in as the user who ran Setup, and then type %temp% in the location bar in Windows Explorer. If the path %temp% resolves to a location that ends in a "1" or "2", you will need to navigate up one level to view the log files. The log file name is Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Setup (<timestamp>).

Tip

To access the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard, click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, click Continue.

The following procedure installs and configures the configuration database, the content database, and installs the SharePoint Central Administration Web site.

To run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard

On the Welcome to SharePoint Products page, click Next.

In the dialog box that notifies you that some services might need to be restarted during configuration, click Yes.

On the Connect to a server farm page, click Create a new server farm, and then click Next.

On the Specify Configuration Database Settings page, do the following:

In the Database server box, type the name of the computer that is running SQL Server.

In the Database name box, type a name for your configuration database, or use the default database name. The default name is SharePoint_Config.

In the Username box, type the user name of the server farm account. Ensure that you type the user name in the format DOMAIN\user name.

Important

The server farm account is used to create and access your configuration database. It also acts as the application pool identity account for the SharePoint Central Administration application pool, and it is the account under which the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Workflow Timer service runs. The SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard adds this account to the SQL Server Login accounts, the SQL Server dbcreator server role, and the SQL Server securityadmin server role. The user account that you specify as the service account must be a domain user account, but it does not need to be a member of any specific security group on your front-end Web servers or your database servers. We recommend that you follow the principle of least privilege and specify a user account that is not a member of the Administrators group on your front-end Web servers or your database servers.

In the Password box, type the user password.

Click Next.

On the Specify Farm Security Settings page, type a passphrase, and then click Next.

Ensure that the passphrase meets the following criteria:

Contains at least eight characters

Contains at least three of the following four character groups:

English uppercase characters (from A through Z)

English lowercase characters (from a through z)

Numerals (from 0 through 9)

Nonalphabetic characters (such as !, $, #, %)

Note

Although a passphrase is similar to a password, it is usually longer to enhance security. It is used to encrypt credentials of accounts that are registered in Microsoft SharePoint Foundation; for example, the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation system account that you provide when you run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. Ensure that you remember the passphrase, because you must use it each time you add a server to the farm.

On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application page, do the following:

Either select the Specify port number check box and type the port number you want the SharePoint Central Administration Web application to use, or leave the Specify port number check box cleared if you want to use the default port number.

Click either NTLM or Negotiate (Kerberos).

Click Next.

On the Completing the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard page, review your configuration settings to verify that they are correct, and then click Next.

If the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard fails, check the PSCDiagnostics log files, which are located on the drive on which SharePoint Foundation is installed, in the %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS folder.

Note

If you are prompted for your user name and password, you might need to add the SharePoint Central Administration Web site to the list of trusted sites and configure user authentication settings in Internet Explorer. You might also want to disable the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security settings. Instructions for how to configure or disable these settings are provided in the following section.

Note

If you see a proxy server error message, you might need to configure your proxy server settings so that local addresses bypass the proxy server. Instructions for configuring proxy server settings are provided later in the following section.

After you run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard, you should ensure that SharePoint Foundation 2010 works properly for local administrators in your environment by configuring additional settings in Internet Explorer.

You have now completed Setup and the initial configuration of SharePoint Foundation 2010. You have created the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. You can now create your farm and sites, and you can select services by using the Farm Configuration Wizard.

On the Help Make SharePoint Better page, click one of the following options, and then click OK:

Yes, I am willing to participate (Recommended.)

No, I don’t want to participate.

On the Configure your SharePoint farm page, click Walk me through the settings using this wizard, and then click Next.

In the Service Account section, click a service account that you want to use to configure your services.

Note

For security reasons, we recommend that you use a different account from the farm administrator account to configure services in the farm.
If you decide to use an existing managed account — that is, an account that SharePoint Foundation is aware of — ensure that you click that option before you continue.

Select the services that you want to use in the farm, and then click Next.

After you install and configure SharePoint Foundation 2010, your browser window opens to the Central Administration Web site of your new SharePoint site. Although you can start adding content to the site or customizing the site, we recommend that you first perform the following administrative tasks by using the SharePoint Central Administration Web site.

Configure diagnostic logging You can configure diagnostic logging that might be required after initial deployment or upgrade. The default settings are sufficient for most situations, but depending upon the business needs and lifecycle of the farm, you might want to change these settings. For more information, see Configure diagnostic logging (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Configure incoming e-mail You can configure incoming e-mail so that SharePoint sites accept and archive incoming e-mail. You can also configure incoming e-mail so that SharePoint sites can archive e-mail discussions as they happen, save e-mailed documents, and show e-mailed meetings on site calendars. In addition, you can configure the SharePoint Directory Management Service to provide support for e-mail distribution list creation and management. For more information, see Configure incoming e-mail (SharePoint Foundation 2010).

Configure outgoing e-mail You can configure outgoing e-mail so that your Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server sends e-mail alerts to site users and notifications to site administrators. You can configure both the "From" e-mail address and the "Reply" e-mail address that appear in outgoing alerts. For more information, see Configure outgoing e-mail (SharePoint Foundation 2010).